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  • In Re Dillon

    Publication Date: 2018-01-09
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Legal Ethics and Attorney Discipline
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge Ray
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Seth Kirschenbaum (Davis Zipperman Kirschenbaum & Lotito), Atlanta; James Spence (Wilson Morton & Downs, LLC), Decatur, for appellant.
    for defendant: Keith Gammage (Fulton County Solicitor General), Atlanta; Paul Howard (District Attorney), Atlanta; Dominique Martinez, Kaye Burwell (Office of the Fulton County Attorney), Atlanta; Patrise Perkins-Hooker, Paula Rafferty (Fulton County Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1723

    The evidence was sufficient to support an attorney's conviction for criminal contempt of court after he repeatedly filed several nearly identical petitions for scire facias under the wrong case number, the last of which was filed after the trial court had admonished him not to do so.

  • Spencer v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-04
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge McFadden
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Thomas Thomas (Attorney at Law), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: John Pipkin (Solicitor General), McDonough, William Kennedy (Henry County State Court Solicitor General's Office), McDonough, for appellee.
    Case Number: A16A0118

    The trial court erred in admitting a police officer's testimony correlating the results of a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test with a numeric blood alcohol content because the evidence State presented was insufficient to establish the scientific validity or reliability of any correlation and the officer's testimony correlating the results of the HGN test with a numeric BAC was thus admitted without a sufficient foundation; accordingly, the Court reversed defendant's DUI-less safe conviction and sentence.

  • Taylor v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-04
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Bethel
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Darrell Reynolds (Darrell B. Reynolds, P.C.), Decatur, for appellant.
    for defendant: Tracy Lawson (District Attorney), Jonesboro; Elizabeth Rosenwasser (Clayton County District Attorney), Jonesboro, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1619

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for conspiracy to commit burglary, two counts of burglary in the first degree, criminal damage to property in the first degree, battery, two counts of home invasion in the first degree, armed robbery, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with intent to rob, kidnapping, false imprisonment and four counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.

  • West v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Ray
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Brian Steel (The Steel Law Firm, PC.), Atlanta; McNeill Stokes (Attorney at Law), Marietta; J. Dietzen (Attorney at Law), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Richard Perryman (District Attorney), Nashville; Rebekah Ditto (Alapaha Circuit District Attorney's Office), Adel; Jennifer Smith (Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Nashville, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A2020

    The trial court properly granted State's motion in limine seeking to prohibit any testimony or evidence about defendant's belief that the victim was over the age of consent in his trial on two counts each of child molestation and statutory rape because a defendants knowledge of the age of the victim is not an essential element of either crime and, therefore, it was no defense that the accused reasonably believed that the victim was of the age of consent.

  • Smith v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence | Judges
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Chief Justice Hines
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael Wayne Tarleton (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Jason Matthew Rea, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Jeffery Wayne Hunt, Peter J. Skandalakis, Christopher R. Keegan (Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Carrollton, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1757

    The trial court did not err in refusing to grant defendant's motions for mistrial during jury deliberations on the ground that notes from the jury showed that it was hopelessly deadlocked because the jury's statements did not indicate that it was deadlocked; considering the totality of the circumstances, the trial courts actions did not coerce the jurys verdicts.

  • Womac v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-02
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael Robert McCarthy (Mike McCarthy, Criminal Defense Lawyer), Rocky Face, for appellant.
    for defendant: Herbert McIntosh Poston, Jr., Victoria Keely Parker, (Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Dalton, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1385

    The Supreme Court affirmed defendant's convictions and sentences for aggravated sexual battery, child molestation, cruelty to children in the first degree and false imprisonment and found that his life sentence for aggravated sexual battery did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Georgia Constitution.

  • Smith v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jessica A. Seares, Nazish Altaf Ahmed (Atlanta Circuit Public Defender's Office), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, S. Taylor Johnston, Matthew Blackwell Crowder (Department of Law), Atlanta; Joshua Daniel Morrison, Paul L. Howard, Jr., Lyndsey Hurst Rudder (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1490

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and related offenses in connection with the shooting death of his wife and the trial court did not err in admitting hearsay statements about the couple's volatile history pursuant to the necessity exception.

  • Simpson v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Peterson
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Tyler R. Conklin (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Michael Alexander Oldham (Department of Law), Atlanta; Deborah D. Wellborn, Zina B. Gumbs, Sherry Boston (Dekalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1352

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, feticide and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony after he shot his pregnant ex-girlfriend in the face and the trial court did not plainly err in its jury instruction.

  • Muckle v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Margaret Elizabeth Heinen (Office of the Public Defender, Atlanta Judicial Circuit), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Jason Matthew Rea (Department of Law), Atlanta; Kenneth W. Mauldin, Brian Vance Patterson (Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Athens, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1363

    The evidence supported defendant's conviction for felony murder in connection with the shooting death of his accomplice in an attempted armed robbery and defendant failed to prove his ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on trial counsel's failure to call another accomplice as a witness at trial.

  • Manner v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-28
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Veronica M. O'Grady (GPDC Appellate Division), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Scott Orion Teague (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Lenny I. Krick, Sherry Boston (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1519

    The trial court properly found that defendant was not entitled to a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel.